Departing
early from Swakopmund with our newly
fitted roof tent, we headed north up the Namibian coast, with a long drive to
Terrace Bay.
We
made one major stop along the way at Cape Cross, home to a large Seal colony. We
had read and heard from many people that the smell was pretty bad, however
nothing can prepare you for the actual smell which hits you even before the car
door opens.
Walking towards the seals I considered going back to the car, the
smell making me dry reach initially. However I went on to check the seals out
and couldn’t believe how many there were. It was crazy! And they should have been cute, but the smell was over too over powering. Although they do look kind of
cute in the photos now J
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| Crazy number of seals |
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| Maybe a little bit cute? Still very smelly! |
From
Cape Cross we continued up the desolate coast, the actual entrance to the Skeleton Coast Park being an accurate indicator of what to expect ahead!
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| Entrance to the Skeleton Coast National Park |
After
a quick stop for lunch at the very pretty and isolated Torra Bay, we continued
on to our final destination for the day, Terrace Bay, one of the strangest
places I think I’ve ever been to!
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| Lunch at Torra Bay |
When
researching for our trip, much of the feedback on Terrace Bay was quite
negative; not to go there because there’s nothing to see, that it was just a
grey place or most common, that you only needed to go there once, the later
which proved to be most accurate.
Terrace
Bay is not a place I’d go back to, but I’m happy I have been there. The whole
area, the scenery, the landscape (minus the ocean) is what I’d imagine the moon
or mars to feel like.
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| Difficult to describe except that it's like another world! |
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| Arriving in Terrace Bay |
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| Our Terrace Bay accommodation |
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| Terrace Bay beach drive |
Anyway,
we had one night there in a cute little house and after arriving, decided to go
for a drive along the beach and just take it easy. That didn’t last long
however, with the first of what became many, tyre punctures occurring.
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| The result of our beach drive...........Flat tyre number one! |
We
were fortunate to be able to get that one repaired in Terrace Bay (our first
indicator that it was a common issue there) and maintain our two spares before
setting off next day towards Etosha.
However,
only half an hour into our trip and we had a tyre blowout, and were already one
spare down.
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| Flat tyre two: A blowout |
Then
another hour after that, not 10 minutes outside of the park, another tyre
puncture and this time no spares left. And so the rest of the day went with us stressing
about the road, ridden with sharp rocks that we had to drive on for pretty much the remainder of that day and no spares.
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| Flat tyre three and no more spares...... |
Somehow
we made it to that night’s rest stop in Outjo, where the following morning we were able to get one of
the punctured tyres repaired before proceeding to Etosha
National Park. We had little concern for the roads in Etosha given we had been
there 10 months earlier and knew they were good!
Some
may remember my previous post from Etosha in December last year and our absence
of luck with animal spotting; well I’m pleased to report that this time was the
complete opposite, animals everywhere!
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| Animals everywhere |
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| Zebra and one impala |
Etosha
National Park is very different from the previous parks we had visited on our
trip, where animals could be anywhere in the park due to the reliability of a
river for water. In Etosha on the other hand, the animals tend to stay close to
the waterholes, which is where we also stayed, with a great deal of
success.
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| Stand-off: The elephant won! |
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| Sunset at our camp's waterhole |
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| Soooo many elephants |
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| "Zebra crossing" |
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| Spot the lion in the trees |
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| Nothing in the distance: Etosha Salt Pans |
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| Me on the Etosha Salt Pans |
Without
a doubt the highlight of Etosha for me was the 10 lions that had made their
home near a dead elephant and waterhole. The elephant unfortunately had been
shot by park rangers after being injured in recent wild fires in the park; sad for the elephant, but good for us cat watchers!
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| Lions and more lions |
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| Snacking |
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One of the elephants shot as a result of recent fires in the park;
easy dinner for this lion |
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| Awesome! |
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| Lions everywhere! And even a giraffe in the background |
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| Resting |
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| A family meal........ |
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| ... and plenty to go around |
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| My favourite photo. Isn't he just amazing?! A young male lion |
After
a very successful Etosha trip, our luck again ran out as we headed towards the
exit of the park, with yet another tyre puncture. Luckily we did have a spare
again, even though it was totally dodgy! We still have no idea how that
puncture occurred given the road we were on and that the tyre was virtually
brand new.
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| Burnt out: Etosha in parts after (very) recent fires |
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| Flat tyre four and again no more spares....... |
So
another stressful drive, however this time only a short one of 2 hours to
Tsumeb where we immediately put an order in for 4 new tyres. Coincidently, Mike’s
“dream” tyres!! J
Looking
like a very serious overland 4wd, we then took “Ruth” on the road back towards
home with a couple of overnight stops in Rundu and Camp Kwando before returning
back to Zambia.
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| Ruth: Fully fitted out overland 4wd |
Our
return home unfortunately has confirmed that our wonderful water and power
pre-election were just a “phase” but super happy that the weather seems so far
cooler than the same time last year!
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